Alumni: Where are they now? Featuring Fereshteh…

HBS alum, Fereshteh Zeineddin, MBA 2010, provides an update on her career post-HBS.Current Position: Store Director, Louis Vuitton Hotel Vancouver Current Location: Vancouver, CanadaAfter completing a summer internship at Louis Vuitton’s head office in New York in between my first and second year at HBS, I was offered an entrepreneurial position as the Client Relations & Business Analysis Manager for the Canada & Bermuda Region. In this role, I was able to learn about the retail business from a merchandising and client development standpoint. Two years into my role, I wanted to explore a new challenge - store management. I realized that in order to be an effective General Manager for Louis Vuitton, I needed to gain a better understanding of our business operations. What better way to do this than through hands-on experience working at one of the stores?

In July 2012, I became Store Director of Canada’s 2nd largest store - the beautiful Hotel Vancouver. The first few months were very challenging as I had little experience in store operations. What gave me confidence in my new role was the General Management education I had received at HBS. My MBA had given me a solid foundation of operations, strategy and leadership which I was able to put into practice right away. Working at the store-level has been an amazing experience that has given me valuable insight into the core of our business. Every day presents itself with new and exciting challenges. With every challenge, I feel the same thrill I felt when I cracked a difficult case back at HBS. I do not know what my next destination with Louis Vuitton will be and that is part of what I love about my journey with the company.